Market Update – 30th November 2017 – AUD/USD Falls Back Below 0.7600, While AUD/GBP Falls On Positive Brexit Talks

The Aussie dollar has continued to track pretty closely to the 0.76 figure vs. the USD with brief moves both above and below over the past fortnight, which tends to suggest that it’s building in some solid resistance and support levels around the figure. What that would mean is we’d need a pretty strong catalyst to break out of the range and that could be something like a rate hike in the U.S, solid jobs numbers or something along those lines. Today’s building approvals and new home sales figures are unlikely to be such a catalyst. In the U.K it appears Brexit talks are moving forward and closer to a resolution which helped support the Pound and saw AUD/GBP head lower and hold below 0.5700. For those waiting on the sidelines for prospects to improve with respect to AUD/GBP you could be in for a long wait and I’d suggest looking at hedging a portion of your GBP exposures would be prudent.

The flavour of the year Bitcoin or BTC pushed through US$10,000 yesterday afternoon before swiftly entering bear market territory with a 20% correction from a high of US$11,384. It’s now trading about US$10,113 and it has been suggested this could be one of the greatest bubbles in human history…my advice…don’t be the last person standing with no seat.

In other news iron ore prices have again been moving higher which is supporting the Aussie dollar, but iron ore prices remain exceptionally volatile having whipsawed between $95 and $53 bucks a tonne just this year. Ahead today is local Aussie date in New Home Sales figures and Building Approvals which is closely followed by Chinese economic data around lunchtime AEST. Strong numbers here could further support iron ore and perhaps see it testing $70 a tonne this week.

AUD EXCHANGE RATES:

AUD/USD – 0.7573

AUD/GBP – 0.5645

AUD/EUR – 0.6389

AUD/NZD – 1.0996

AUD/JPY – 84.764

COMMODITIES: 

Gold – A$1695/oz

Silver –  A$21.84/oz

WTI – US$57.40/barrel

DATA RELEASES TODAY:

AUD – HIA New Home Sales at 11.00am

AUD – Building Approvals at 11.30am

CNY – Manufacturing & Non-Manufacturing PMI at midday (AEST)

EUR – CPI Flash Estimate at 9.00pm